Southern Oregon University joined resilience leaders, practitioners and community partners from across Oregon for the three-day Oregon Resilience Summit in Sunriver, featuring presentations and discussions on building stronger, more resilient communities.
Recently, 20 Southern Oregon University students and faculty spent a long and very full day in Butte Falls, Oregon. The field trip was one aspect of the SOU Community Leadership and Resilience Program where student fellows work directly with cities and towns to learn about how communities solve problems, build sustainability and foster resilience through shared values and hard work. The Summer Field School is an innovation lab of sorts, and Butte Falls, as an innovation hub, is the right place to be for place-based learning.
As part of SOU’s Community Resilience & Leadership program, student fellow Dylan Houk spent 10 weeks working with Sustainable Northwest to research the value of community resilience and microgrids, and their growing importance in the Rogue Valley. This case study highlights the real-world research and community partnerships at the heart of CRL, connecting student learning with practical solutions to regional challenges.
As climate events, wildfires and energy disruptions increasingly shape life in Oregon, one Southern Oregon University program is taking a hands-on approach to preparing students—and communities—for what comes next.
At the heart of that effort is the Institute for Applied Sustainability and its flagship Student Fellows Program, which brings together students from across disciplines to tackle real-world projects centered on resilience.
This story showcases how the Local Innovation Lab empowers students to turn their ideas into practical solutions with the potential to benefit their communities. Through her research on mission-aligned investing, SOU student and former IAS Student Engagement Lead, Maisie Bandel-Ramirez demonstrates how applied learning, mentorship, and student initiative can create opportunities for meaningful change.
This story highlights how the Institute for Applied Sustainability’s Local Innovation Lab connects classroom learning with real-world community challenges. Follow SOU student and soccer player Franco Fasoli as he applies his economics studies to affordable housing research, demonstrating how hands-on learning and mentorship can help students connect their academic interests with meaningful regional impact.
Southern Oregon University’s Institute for Applied Sustainability is recruiting students for its new Community Resilience and Leadership Student Fellows program – an opportunity for a cohort of 15 of students to help create meaningful solutions to urgent challenges facing local communities. The one-year fellowship – a cornerstone of the institute’s Living Laboratory concept – offers a total of 12 credit hours plus monetary stipends to students who are selected for the fellowships…
